As widely expected, all reconciliation efforts made
recently to end the 6-year rift between Hamas and
Fatah have failed to make a real breakthrough. Some
pundits are even worried the two sides might once
again find themselves in square one, given the
inherent mutual lack of trust as well as political
disagreements over strategic issues pertaining to the
Palestinian question.

One of the fundamental issues impeding concordance
between the two groups is the dominant Israeli factor.
Israel, whether we like it or not, has the final say
with regard to holding Palestinian elections and
allowing or disallowing Islamists and other
anti-Israeli elements to take part in the electoral
process.

This is especially true in the West Bank where the
Israeli occupation army continues to patrol every nook
and cranny.

This means that the purportedly autonomous Palestinian
Authority (PA) is not independent or free enough to
take national decisions to restore national unity.

Indeed, the financial, security and political
subservience of the PA to Israel makes the notion of
achieving national unity with Hamas very remote to put
it mildly.

This is actually the main reason reconciliation has
not been reached despite the passage of more than six
years since the unfortunate events of 2007.

For Israel, the very existence of the PA is meant to
carry out the functions of the occupation indirectly.
This is the reason the PA security agencies routinely
arrest Palestinians upon receiving a request or more
correctly an order from Israel through the liaison
office which coordinates activities between the two
sides.

The PA also effectively protects Jewish settlers and
other Israeli occupation targets in general from
possible Palestinian acts of resistance.

However, when innocent and helpless Palestinian
villagers and farmers are attacked, savaged and shot
at by fanatical Jewish settlers, the PA security
agencies content themselves with the role of passive
spectators.

The defenseless Palestinian victims often cry out for
help, but no help reaches them. This is because the PA
security forces can't intervene in this case, thanks
to the scandalous and humiliating Oslo Accords with
Israel.

In fact, the security coordination pact between Israel
and the PA regime is directed first and foremost
against Hamas. Hence, one is prompted to ask "how on
earth can Hamas be united with Fatah in one entity
when Fatah refuses to end its collusion and connivance
with Israel against the Islamist movement?"

Indeed, Hamas would be more than gullible if it joined
Fatah in a national unity scheme under these
circumstances.

The other issue is PA insistence to organize elections
in the West Bank despite Israeli objections. Again,
how could we Palestinians hold free and fair elections
when Israel declares day and night it would arrest any
member of Hamas taking part in the elections? Does
Hamas need to further swell the numbers of its
prisoner population in Israeli jails and dungeons?

This is not a hypothetical issue. Following the 2006
elections in the occupied territories, the Israeli
occupation army rounded up nearly all male MPs
affiliated with Hamas. Even today, there is a number
of Islamist MPs who are still languishing in Israeli
detention and concentration camps on no grounds other
than their participation in the 2006 elections.

Does anyone still remember Sheikh Nayef Rajoub from
Dura, who is still suffering in Zionist jails ever
since the Shalit affair in 2007… and the declared
reason for his prolonged incarceration is his
association with the Hamas electoral bloc, the Change
and Reform list? Interestingly Rajoub never committed
any misdemeanor, or carried out any violation of the
law. His only "crime" is his outspokenness against
Israeli oppression and terror.

In light, we must not make the same mistake twice. The
prophet Muhammed (PBUH) said: "A believer shouldn't be
bitten from the same snake-hole twice."

More to the point, there seems to be a smell of foul
play on Fatah's part in the air.

Fatah knows quite well that Israel would interfere
heavily in any prospective elections in the West Bank.
This, coupled with the stringent manipulation of the
process by the Ramallah regime, would most likely give
Fatah a landslide victory against Hamas as many
Palestinians, especially among Hamas' supporters,
would prefer to stay at home on Election Day lest they
be arrested and punished later, either by Israel or
the PA or both.

We have argued repeatedly against holding elections
under the present circumstances in the West Bank.
Indeed, in order to have truly free and fair
elections, civil liberties have to be guaranteed. Now,
civil liberties are almost nonexistent.

Another point, true elections need a great degree of
normalcy, and if normalcy doesn't exist and it
doesn't, we need to promote it even if the process
takes some time.

We simply have to get people freed from the burden of
fear and intimidation which they acquired during six
long years of police state apparatus. Only a
sufficient period of desensitization would guarantee
the restoration of normalcy.

To conclude, there are numerous obstacles impeding the
realization of complete reconciliation between Fatah
and Hamas, given the fundamental ideological and
political differences between the two groups. It is
therefore unwise and politically disastrous to ignore
these differences.

The alternative to complete political reconciliation
is not perpetual contention, sullen hostility and
conflict. There is something called modus vivindi or
positive coexistence.

Our Muslim Jurists and sages had long founded a solid
maxim to manage differences. "We cooperate on what we
agree on and forgive each other on what we disagree
on."

Therefore, Fatah and Hamas must stop running after the
unrealistic goal of achieving full national
concordance. We have been trying to achieve this goal
for too long but to no avail. Now, we should try
another strategy: achieving a respectable level of
entente and understanding.

Besides, who says that Hamas and Fatah must agree on
everything? The two movements can't be made identical
and see eye to eye on everything. . If they were to be
identical, then only one of them would need to exist
while the other movement would have to coalesce into
the other.